


Superhero Showdown versus Avengers Assessed (or: That One Time the Avengers Wrote a Scientific Paper)

by Ilye



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Fake Science, Humor, Nerds!, Protective Bucky Barnes, Steve Rogers' stupid decisions, Tony Stark makes up science, author throwing stones at her own glass house, subjective speculative fiction for geeks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-10
Updated: 2016-07-10
Packaged: 2018-07-22 17:34:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,382
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7447993
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ilye/pseuds/Ilye
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“So basically,” Stark chips in, “what you have in your own two hands there, Cap, is a published piece of subjective, speculative fiction written for geeks by people who spend their free time writing subjective, speculative fiction for geeks.”</p><p>“We could write the objective, accurate non-fiction version – the one where the authors haven’t been blinded by Cap’s moobs.” Barton’s a little shit and he knows it, but to his credit he doesn’t flinch when Barnes tightens his arm around Steve and mouths 'I will kill you' so Barton can lip-read it. </p><p>(Barnes has no idea what a moob is. But it sounds bad.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is all the fault of an [I Fucking Love Science article](http://www.iflscience.com/editors-blog/scientists-may-have-finally-figured-out-who-is-the-best-superhero/). I liked the theory, but a) the scientist in me was appalled at the methodology, b) the Marvel fan in me was annoyed that they only included two of the Avengers, and c) the voices in my head insisted that, collectively, we all could do better.
> 
> Which is why I’ve written a nerd-ass scientific paper entitled “Avengers assessed: Objective comparison of individuals in 12 domains relating to superheroism” by Stark _et al._ Plus character-based commentary, obviously.

Source: Dufour J, Diddley R, Stearns G, _et al._ Superhero showdown: Comparison of strengths and weaknesses amongst The Avengers. _Journal of Human Biomechanics_ 2016;56:274–9.

~✪~

“This," Stark spits as he thrusts a dog-eared sheaf of papers onto the coffee table, "is the biggest steaming pile of horse shit I've ever seen. Bad science, is what it is – wrong, so wrong, it’s so off the mark it makes Columbus look like he hit the bullseye – who published this? Was it even peer-reviewed because seriously I –”

“Can it, Tony," Barton sighs from his perch on the back of the sofa across the common room. "You’re just sore because you’re bottom of the pile.”

Barnes suspects Barton already regrets bringing the article to Stark’s obsessive attention. He catches a glimpse of the title on the top-most page:  _ Superhero showdown: Comparison of strengths and weaknesses amongst The Avengers _ . It wouldn't pay to look too interested and encourage Stark, but he's definitely curious and he's not sorry when Steve stretches across him and snags the paper to read it for himself. Barnes side-eyes the abstract whilst Stark continues bitching.

“And if were  _ fair _ I wouldn’t mind. I’m not a bad loser. Okay, well, I am, I’m a super-bad loser, but I’m also a genius and I realise I’m not enhanced in any way beyond my magnificent brain but they’ve got an  _ explosive powers category _ and yet they gave me no dot! Where’s my dot? I’ve got explosive powers, did they not see what I did in –”

“You’ve got a good point, actually," Barnes cuts in. Stark might be irritating enough to make his balls itch, but the guy did get the raw end of the deal in that dumbass paper he's been waving under their noses. "I mean, objectively as Tony Stark you suck harder'n a Dyson, but they’re meant t'be measuring Iron Man here and in the suit you're way better than that.” 

Stark looks a little blindsided. "I, er, I think that's a compliment you just paid me, Barnes – might wanna watch yourself there."

Barnes shrugs. "Whatever. It's the truth. I know it ain't usually kind to you, but every dog's gotta luck out somewhen, huh."

Whilst he's been speaking, Barnes has noticed Romanov sneaking up behind the sofa he's sat on with Steve, but Steve clearly hadn't because he jumps and curses when she steals the paper from between his fingers. Barnes uses the opportunity to rest a comforting hand on Steve's knee. Comforting…. Oh, what the hell – he may as well take full advantage and grope Steve's thigh. Just a little.

Steve just absently covers Barnes' hand with his own and glances back to where Romanov is frowning at the methods section.

"I  _ was _ reading that," he mutters in his Captain-America-is-disappointed-in-you voice. Romanov ignores him so he turns back to Stark. "What was the conclusion, anyway?"

Barnes extends his metal arm behind him and opens the hand expectantly. The plates recalibrate with intent and  he's pleased he's managed to make it sound menacing enough that Romanov goes perfectly still. He wiggles his fingers, and tries not to ruin the effect with a fistpump when she places the article into his hand.

He flips back to the front page and scans down to the final lines of the abstract. "In conclusion, our comparative assessments found Captain America best-equipped of the Avengers to deal with a variety of challenges encountered in their line of work. His superiority to his teammates in terms of most strengths and fewest weaknesses suggests an appropriate appointment as team leader." He pauses, and sneers at the paper because some of its methods have made him definitely uncomfortable. "Well, let's hear it for Captain America!"

It earns him the punch to the shoulder he expected, but it seems his unease has gone unnoticed because everyone else is laughing.

"Mirror, mirror, on the wall," Barton trills, "Cap is the greatest of them all!"

Steve shifts and ducks his head in that pre-blushing embarrassment thing he does. But Barnes can't shake the horrible feeling that Stark's actually on the money and there’s Bad Science™ at play, especially because he knows a thing or two about Steve that the crackpot authors don’t.

“I'm not sure how much they actually got  _ right _ here, y'know.” Barnes knows Steve definitely qualifies for a few of those weakness categories, but maybe it’s not the wisest idea to bring that up here so he picks an alternative illustration. “I mean, Black Widow’s bottom of the pile, and we all know any one of you would lose in a one-to-one with her.” He frowns and flips back to the methods section. “Seems pretty biased towards Steve to me.”

"Appreciate that vote of confidence, Buck," Steve snorts, not unkindly, at the same time as Stark says,

“Takes one to know one. That’s exactly what I’ve been saying all along.” Barnes levels him with a Winter Soldier glare over the top of the publication, and Stark practically  _ squeaks _ as he hastens to add, “I mean, that it’s biased – completely biased  _ against _ me, I  _ told _ you they should’ve given me a dot for explosive powers–”

And of course, Banner is the voice of reason when he finally speaks up and cuts Stark off. “We all get it, Tony. Barnes is right. There's no objective view in this whatsoever.” He waves his StarkPad where it looks like he’s been reading the online version of the paper. “Check out the conflict of interest section – lead author's president of their institution's Captain America Appreciation Society.”

“What.” Steve nearly tears the paper as he yanks it from Barnes’. Because it’s him and only him, Barnes doesn’t remove Steve’s hand at the wrist, but from the way Steve’s gawping at the paper, he wouldn’t have noticed anyway. “The Captain America Appreciation– how is this a thing?”

“And if I may, Sirs,” JARVIS adds from the ceiling, “five of the six authors also have accounts on Archive of Our Own, a well-known open-source, non-commercial, non-profit archive for fan fiction  and other transformative fanworks .”

“So basically,” Stark chips in, “what you have in your own two hands there, Cap, is a published piece of subjective, speculative fiction written for geeks by people who spend their free time writing subjective, speculative fiction for geeks.”

Steve throws the paper back onto the coffee table and presses the heels of his hands into his eyes. “The twenty-first century ain’t getting any less strange,” he sighs, though he at least looks a little less hangdog when Barnes takes pity on him and slings an arm across his shoulders.

“We  _ could _ write the objective, accurate non-fiction version – the one where the authors haven’t been blinded by Cap’s moobs.” Barton’s a little shit and he knows it, but to his credit he doesn’t flinch when Barnes tightens his arm around Steve and mouths  _ I will kill you _ so Barton can lip-read it. 

(Barnes has no idea what a  _ moob _ is. But it sounds bad.)

“We can do more than that.” Banner sounds like he’s getting with the programme, and Barnes thinks that sounds even worse than a moob. “Our major advantage over Dufour’s group is that we have access to the  _ actual _ Avengers. We’ll have to get Thor back here, but we can run some objective tests and publish the data in response.”

Experiments. Fucking perfect. Barnes facepalms himself with the metal hand. He wants to leave, but he’s afraid of what crackpot scheme they’ll cook up if he’s not there to glower some sense back into them. 

“So are we redesigning this entire thing ourselves?” Stark doesn’t sound like he’s even  _ trying _ to keep the glee out of his voice, which is when Barnes decides to preserve what’s left of his sanity and more or less switches off entirely for the next hour in favour of sharpening his knife on his metal fingers. When he zones back in, the coffee table is covered in sheets of scribbled-on paper, Steve is staring thoughtfully at some kind of calculation on energy consumption, Romanov is tossing her own knife carelessly in the air and looking bored, Barton’s disappeared entirely, and Stark and Banner are having a Scientific Discussion™.

Given that this is all one big pissing contest, Barnes doesn’t reckon he’s missed anything that important.

“Do you even know how to write a scientific paper, Tony?” So Barton hasn’t disappeared entirely, ‘cos that’s his disembodied voice coming from… Barnes concentrates.... above the ceiling tile third row from the left.

Stark frowns and sticks his pinkie in his ear. He even turns around to be sure that Barton can get a view of his lips from his hidey-hole. “What’s that? Sounds to me like some people forget that three PhDs and a zillion patents to your name means you have actually written a paper or two.”

There’s a cough from the ceiling that sounds a lot like bullshit. Stark magnanimously ignores it and turns back to Banner.

“What about authorship, Brucie? You want first or last?”

Barnes can feel Steve’s frown before he hears it. “That matters?”

“It’s a convention,” Banner explains with a long-suffering patience. “Lead author takes all the credit and last author keeps the others in check.”

“It’s not even a debate when you put it like that,” Romanov remarks, and Stark does a happy dance knowing he’s got first place.

“Target journal?” is Banner’s next question. 

Stark flaps ineffectually towards the coffee table. 

“What crackpot rag is that one in?”

Steve leans forward and peers into the paper avalanche. " _ The Journal of Human Biomechanics _ .” He shrugs. “Sounds legit."

“Never heard of it.” Stark’s flappy-hand turn dismissive, just like that. “Look, I’m lead author on this thing and that means it’s one of two options.” He surveys the group with severity, then holds out his hands, palms up, and makes a weighing-up motion. “Take your pick:  [ _ Nature _ ](http://www.nature.com/nature/index.html) or  [ _ Science _ ](http://www.sciencemag.org/) ?”

~✪~

“It’s a shame we can’t include you,” Steve says later. He’s sprawled on his bed, not really watching the show playing on his tablet; Barnes has been able to feel Steve’s eyes on him for the last half-hour. Barmes makes a grunting noise without knowing what he wants to convey, but aware that this conversation might not go so swell.

Steve takes the noise as a request to elaborate. “I know we’re still meant to be keeping you under wraps, but we could run you in the matches anyway. It would been fun.”

Barnes squints at him over the top of the Dufour paper he filched from the common room table when everyone finally dispersed. 

“No, Steve," he says, on a long slow breath like it's gonna help blow off some steam, "it wouldn’t. We already know I can beat your punk ass six ways to Sunday and I ain’t about to try it again now I’ve got my wits back.” 

And Steve's got his I-believe-in-you face on, because of-fucking- _ course _ he has, and oh boy, here we go. Barnes has come a long way thanks to therapy and all that jazz, but his head's just as hot as it always used to be, before –  _ before _ – and this gets his goat quicker than 'most anything else. 

"You wouldn't hurt me," Steve says calmly, and it has exactly the opposite effect Barnes knew was intended because before he knows it his left hand’s crushed the papers into a ball and sent them sailing through the bedroom doorway. 

“See, this is why that first paper was such a crock of shit! Am I the only one who noticed they ignored all your dumbass weak points? You should be king of the fuckin’ hill when it comes to ‘potential for harming or inconveniencing self’! And what about all that time you spent chasin’ about after wherever my scrambled brains would take us? What about your ‘inability to take impact’ when it’s a metal fist to the face? Pretty major weaknesses from where I’m standing, pal.”

He stares at where Steve’s got his fingertips pressed to his right cheekbone, the one that’d crumpled like a dinged-up Dodge when The Asset had really let loose on the helicarrier. But Steve’s eyes are soft and thoughtful, which means he’s gearing up for a patented Captain America logic-smackdown. Joy. Barnes can’t friggin'  _ wait _ , and braces himself.

“Potential for harming self…” Steve says quietly. His fingers dig into his cheekbone and even though they both know it’s healed like it never broke in the first place, Barnes still sees him wince. “Yeah, I’ll take that one. Inconvenience, though?” And now his fingers are on Barnes’ cheek instead, and  _ shit _ , when had Steve ever  _ not _ been able to see through him like a cheap sheet?

“You’re never an inconvenience to me, Buck. You’re never that. If all it took was a bust-up face, three bullets, a hospital stay and a year on the road to get you here with me now then I’d do it all again quicker’n you can lindy hop because I  _ care about you _ , and who said that was a weakness?”

Barnes can name enough people who told him that to fill a 747, but he doesn’t because it would take effort and those assholes don’t deserve his energy, especially not when it’s  _ Steve _ he’s trying to be angry at. But then… shit, then Steve’s eyes crinkle, and Barnes’ stomach flips because when Steve’s smiling like that Barnes is  _ done for. _ And, sure enough…

“C’mere,” Steve says, opening an arm. Barnes rolls his eyes to hide how much he wants it, and prowls up the bed like an offended cat to curl around Steve’s side.

“You did a lotta dumbass things for me,” he grumps into Steve’s shoulder.

“Mmhmm.” Steve rests his lips against Barnes’ temple, not quite a kiss but not  _ not _ one, either. “And I’d do ‘em all again tomorrow too and they’d still be the best decisions I ever made. ”

“Mmph.” Barnes is proud of himself for that noise. It’s the most emotionally eloquently he’s been since 1944. “Stupid.”

Against his skin, Steve’s lips curl upwards and his arms tighten around Barnes’ shoulders. “You’re stupid,” he murmurs back, taunting Barnes with the old banter he knows Barnes can’t refuse.

“‘Yeah, you’re my stupid.” Barnes sticks a metal finger very gently into Steve’s side, rides out the resulting squirm and grumble, then closes his eyes and lets himself settle against the rhythmic rise and fall of Steve’s ridiculous chest whilst his hackles finally flatten. 

“On the subject of dumbass things you do,” Barnes says eventually, “you’re gonna get experimented on tomorrow.”

Steve’s chest jumps under his cheek. “Yeah,” he chuffs, sounding the tiniest bit like a kid on Christmas Eve, “and it’s gonna be  _ fun _ !”


	2. Avengers assessed: Objective comparison of individuals in 12 domains relating to superheroism

**Avengers assessed: Objective comparison of individuals in 12 domains relating to superheroism  
** Stark AE, Barton CF, Odinsson T, Rogers SG, Romanov NA, Banner RB.

 

 

>  
> 
> **Abstract**
> 
> Recent literature has speculated on the relative individual skills of the Avengers, a team of superhero vigilantes who endeavour to maintain the safety of the general population. However, work from other groups may be susceptible to bias and is limited by lack of access to the Avengers themselves. The present publication therefore aimed to assess the individual Avengers against each other in an objective and scientific manner. We assessed the six team members in 12 domains relating to superheroism, using a combination of computer simulations, historical record analysis, individual trials and head-to-head matches. Individuals were ranked in each domain and awarded a relative score, which was totalled to reach the Overall Superheroism Rating (OSR). Thor scored the highest OSR, whilst Hawkeye scored the lowest. However, each team member achieved a top score in at least one domain. Our data clearly demonstrate that each Avenger has different individual strengths, allowing the team to adapt to a variety of combat circumstances. This will prove useful in future team developments and tactical training.

 

**Introduction**

As skilled combatants in the public eye, The Avengers are the subject of much speculation with regards to their skills, powers and enhancements. The majority of such speculation stems from the media and social networks (ScreenRant 2012; New York Post 2013; USA Today 2015; IMDb 2016); as such, there is a lack of objective, science-based assessments of individual ability.

Some researchers have recently attempted to scientifically assess individual Avengers’ strengths and weaknesses (Dufour _et al._ 2016). However, the literature is frequently speculative, subjective, biased, and necessarily limited by a lack of access to the Avengers themselves. Furthermore, the methods and outcome measures are frequently confounded by an inability to separate the civilian persona from the Avenger; for example, simultaneously considering the abilities of Tony Stark with those of Iron Man.

The present paper aims to objectively quantify and compare the superheroism traits of each Avenger against other team members, in order to provide an accurate benchmark for further developments.

 

**Methods**

_Participants_  
Of the six Avengers members, Tony Stark, Clint Barton, Thor Odinsson, Steve Rogers and Natasha Romanov actively participated in their superhero guises as Iron Man (Mark III suit), Hawkeye, Thor, Captain America and Black Widow, respectively. The Hulk’s involvement is hypothetical only as Bruce Banner opted out of active assessments for physical and emotional safety reasons. His rankings were assigned based on previous team combat experience and scores were agreed-upon by all authors.

 _Assessment format_  
Active participants were assessed against each other in three areas relating to their superheroism activities: defence, attack and speed/strength/skill. Each area is broken down into four domains as shown in Table 1. All assessments were conducted at 12 noon to control for morning/evening preferences.

_Table 1: Superheroism domains and assessment methods used._

Individual trials were used to assess energy output, explosive powers, force exertion, maximal independent speed, stealth and target skill. Existing artificial intelligence algorithms were used to measure energy output, explosive powers and force exertion (Stark Industries, 2008). Maximal independent speed was measured by time trial. Target skill was assessed using individual’s weapon of choice in a neutral, simulated environment. Stealth was assessed in Avengers guise; individuals were sent into multiple civilian areas and time to recognition recorded.

Head-to-head matches for hand-to-hand combat and strength were conducted in triplicate, with the individual winning best of three being assigned the match point.

 _Energy efficiency_  
In addition to the 12 superheroism domains, we also calculated energy efficiency based on an individual’s basal metabolic rate (BMR) or other energy input requirements, compared with output:

_Analysis and scoring_  
Each Avenger was ranked against other individuals in the team and assigned a numerical score based on rank in each domain (6 being the highest and 1 being the lowest). Each domain was totalled to reach the Overall Superherosim Rating (OSR).

 

**Results**

_ _

_Table 2: Individual superheroism domain scores and overall OSR._

_OSR_  
Table 2 shows the OSR and individual domain scores for each team member. Thor scored highest in terms of OSR at 56 points, whilst Hawkeye scored lowest at 33 points. This was to be expected given Thor's status as an alien demi-god, compared to Hawkeye's as the only unenhanced human team member.

 _Unique properties_  
Each individual ranked highest in at least one domain.

Iron Man is the only Avenger with a reinforced protective exoskeleton. He can augment upwards almost indefinitely, resulting in a top score in the force exertion domain. He scored low in the ‘target skill’ domain as a result of choosing palm repulsors to be weapon of choice, which obliterated the entire target with some damage to the surroundings. The team concurred that poor precision warranted a low score in this domain. It should be noted, however, that a repeat dummy assessment using Iron Man’s laser resulted in a higher score.

Thor scored top in the most domains: durable accessories, immunity to disease, regenerative capacity, energy output and speed. This was as-expected given his alien demi-god status.

The Hulk scored highest for strength and is demonstrably bullet-proof, hence an additional high score for protective exoskeleton or exterior. It should be noted that this domain excluded armour, except in the case of Iron Man who exists as Tony Stark in its absence. Captain America and Thor are considered somewhat more impervious to damage than Black Widow and Hawkeye. No bullets were fired in the testing of this domain.

Captain America and the Hulk, despite scoring highly for strength, are both fixed and therefore scored lower in terms of force exertion.

Captain America achieved top score for immunity to disease, thanks to the super-serum. This feature also gave him a high score for regenerative capacity, in addition to durable accessories and hand-to-hand combat skill.

Black Widow proved exceptional at hand-to-hand combat skill, due to agility and her training in numerous different fighting styles. She also scored top for stealth and achieved an additional high score for target skill, supporting her role as a spy within the team. She expressed the opinion that, although skilled with firearms and projectiles, her targets are of a more information-based nature.

Hawkeye achieved low scores in a number of domains, which reflects his status as an unenhanced human with relatively little training. However, he achieved top score for target skill and a high score for stealth, reflecting appropriate position as team sniper.

Black Widow and Hawkeye tied on ‘Regenerative capacity’ as non-enhanced human beings. Iron Man is placed lowest in this category due to the scarcity of raw materials required for suit construction.

Thor, Hulk, Captain America and Black Widow lack any form of explosive powers, hence the tie at 4 points each. The same is true for Iron Man, Black Widow and Hawkeye with regards to ‘Immunity from disease’ at 3 points each; Thor and Captain America appear entirely immune, and the Hulk moderately immune, although in this case it was difficult to distinguish from Dr Banner’s disease susceptibility.

 _Energy efficiency  
_ Figure 1 shows each individual’s energy efficiency. Iron Man’s arc reactor places him at a clear advantage in the energy efficiency domain, by offering an infinite energy renewal source. The Hulk scored low due to vast size, as did Captain America and Thor due to energy intake requirement by their rapid metabolisms. Thor’s exact BMR is undetermined, but Captain America’s BMR has been calculated as 8864 kCal/day, or approximately 4 times that of an average-sized human male such as Hawkeye. Average human energy efficiency at work is estimated at 18–26%. The difference between energy efficiency at rest and at work for both Captain America and Thor was remarkably low, suggesting that both Avengers’ basal metabolic processes direct towards efficient storage system that requires little additional energy input when at work.

_Figure 2: Individual energy efficiency scores._

 

**Discussion**

Our work offers a scientific and objective assessment of each individual Avenger against the rest of the team. We believe it is the first to do so, and as such presents a significant improvement over work from other groups.

The most similar work to ours was published recently by Dufour _et al._ (2016), which we felt was limited by bias and subjectivity. We therefore attempted to remove significant biases and subjectivity from our assessments by several means.

The authors accept that they had access to a number of resources beyond the means available to Dufour _et al._ , primarily the Avengers themselves. However, our leading critique of the previous publication is that assessments failed to adequately control for team members’ civilian personas, hence all our assessments were designed to be carried out under the superhero persona, with sufficient controls for civilian identity.

We used a quantitative scoring system to enable team member ranking and objective comparison. Instead of a binary score as used by Dufour _et al._ , we assessed each Avenger against other individuals in the team, ranked the outcomes, and assigned a numerical score based on rank in each domain.

To further eliminate subjectivity, we also reviewed the titles of superheroism domains. For example, we modified ‘Super strength’ to ‘Strength’, and ‘Great force exertion’ to ‘Force exertion’. We also opted to avoid categories relating to motives or relative harm to aggressors/innocents, as such issues are strongly subjective. This is exemplified by the domain of ‘power to do harm to innocents’, given that all Avengers have the potential to cause collateral damage whilst working. We replaced the ‘disguise’ domain with ‘stealth’, since all team members operate in civilian guise when not on a mission and stealth is more relevant to some individuals’ mission operations than others. For example, Black Widow’s function is primarily as a spy, whereas the Hulk is, by nature, unavoidable and Iron Man’s activities are augmented by attention. ‘Gene expression manipulation’ was omitted, on the basis that as Dr Banner is the only individual with this capability and is rarely in control of its manifestation, it cannot be considered a usable strength.

For tactical reasons, the authors omitted all ‘weakness’ domains, due to concerns that these may be exploited by adversaries during combat. However, we feel that the revised quantitative scoring system adjusts for the absence of these domains. Furthermore, it should also be noted that individuals are rarely required to function in such a way; usually multiple members interact as a team in a way that complements their strengths which, together with weapon and technology usage, would significantly change action dynamic.

In conclusion, it is clear that each Avenger has individual strengths, allowing the team to adapt to a variety of combat circumstances. These data provide a useful benchmark for team strategists and offer a direction for future training and development.

 

**References**

Dufour J, Diddley R, Stearns G, _et al._ Superhero showdown: Comparison of strengths and weaknesses amongst The Avengers. _Journal of Human Biomechanics_ 2016;56:274–9.

IMDb (2016). _Poll: Which Avengers Character Do You Want on Your Side?_ Available at: <http://www.imdb.com/poll/YyaK45uIl5g/results?ref_=po_sr>. Last accessed July 2016.

New York Post (2013). _Which Avenger is best?_ Available at: [ http://nypost.com/2015/04/30/which-avenger-is-the-best/](http://nypost.com/2015/04/30/which-avenger-is-the-best/). Last accessed July 2016.

ScreenRant (2012). _Who should lead the Avengers? Captain America vs. Iron Man vs. Thor._ Available at: [ http://screenrant.com/avengers-leader-captain-america-thor-iron-man-robf-127140/](http://screenrant.com/avengers-leader-captain-america-thor-iron-man-robf-127140/). Last accessed July 2016.

Stark Industries (2008). _Artificial intelligence algorithm supplement for physical attribute calculation._ US2304857.

USA Today (2015). ' _Avengers' poll: Guys would call Black Widow for help, women prefer Captain America._ Available at: [ http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/entertainthis/2015/05/01/avengers-favorites-poll/77493948/ ](http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/entertainthis/2015/05/01/avengers-favorites-poll/77493948/)

**Author's Note:**

> 1\. The Dufour paper is fictional. The closest thing I've found is the [I Fucking Love Science article](http://www.iflscience.com/editors-blog/scientists-may-have-finally-figured-out-who-is-the-best-superhero/) mentioned earlier, but that covered a lot of DCU characters, which are Not Real and don't belong here.
> 
> 2\. The author’s analysis of this is _obviously_ subjective and biased. Please feel free to publish objections!
> 
> 3\. _[Nature](http://www.nature.com/)_ and _[Science](www.sciencemag.org/%0A)_ are the two biggest-hitting scientific journals out there. Getting an article published in one of them is probably the scientific equivalent of appearing in a Hollywood film. The two journals are roughly equal in terms of prestige and impact, and although the types of articles they publish do differ a bit, there is also some overlap.
> 
> 4\. Thanks to Dusk for cheerleading, commentary, and generally assuring me it's okay to be this nerdy. (I'm fairly sure it's not okay, but I appreciated the sentiment.)


End file.
